GREENING GOVERNMENT REPORT
Introduction
2. The Environmental Audit Committee was established
on 10 November 1997 to consider to what extent the policies and
programmes of government departments and non-departmental public
bodies contribute to environmental protection and sustainable
development; to audit their performance against such targets as
may be set for them by Her Majesty's Ministers; and to report
thereon to the House.
3. The Committee's first Report examined the Government's
Pre-Budget Report against the background of the Treasury's Statement
of Intent on Environmental Taxation.[1]
This second Report is the first of what the Committee plans will
be annual reports on the progress of the Government in integrating
environmental considerations into decision-making in every department
at every level as an important part of its pursuit of sustainable
development.[2] This is
referred to as the 'Greening Government Initiative'.
4. Successive governments have always had strong
machinery for ensuring that the economic aspects of policies and
programmes are kept under regular and close review. The environmental
and social aspects have not always been similarly treated. On
the environmental side, all the recent indicators and monitoring
reports from the Department of the Environment, Transport and
the Regions, the Environment Agencies for England and Wales and
for Scotland, and the European Environment Agency show that there
is still much to be done to protect the environment and to reverse
damaging trends. The Committee therefore welcomes the new Government's
commitment to strengthening the machinery for ensuring proper
attention to environmental issues in its planning and decision-making,
and hopes that the recommendations made in this report will help
to take that process further. The Committee has concentrated on
the environmental aspects of sustainable development, but several
of the recommendations in this report could, with suitable adaptations,
be applied to ensure that the social dimension of policies and
plans are attended to with equal rigour.
5. The Government is committed to putting concern
for the environment at the heart of policy-making, so that it
is not a bolt-on extra, but informs the whole of government. To
take this forward it established a Cabinet Ministerial Committee
on the Environment (ENV); a network of Green Ministers for each
department working collectively as the Green Ministers Committee;
and a Sustainable Development Unit located in the Department of
the Environment, Transport and the Regions but on offer as a pan-governmental
resource. The other significant elements in the Government's approach
are a revised Sustainable Development Strategy and indicators
for the UK; and renewed emphases on environmental policy appraisal
and green housekeeping. In this inquiry the Committee considered
how the Government is implementing its commitments through:
- leadership and institutions;
- strategy;
- reporting;
- policy appraisal;
- housekeeping; and
- environmental management systems.
6. We were grateful for memoranda from the Department
of the Environment, Transport and the Regions on the Initiative
as a whole and from each Green Minister regarding their individual
departments.[3] Memoranda
from local government representatives, government advisory bodies
on sustainable development matters, bodies representing industry,
nongovernmental organisations and others provided further
perspectives. A full list of memoranda received is published at
the back of the Report.
7. The Committee took oral evidence from the Government,
examining: Rt Hon John Prescott, MP, Deputy Prime Minister and
Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions
and Rt Hon Michael Meacher, MP, Minister for the Environment;
and four Green Ministers:- Mr Jeff Rooker, MP, Minister of State,
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; Mr John Spellar,
MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence;
Mr John Battle, MP, Minister of State, Department of Trade and
Industry; and Glenda Jackson CBE, MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary
of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.
8. The Committee also took oral evidence from representatives
of the Council for the Protection of Rural England; Friends of
the Earth; the London Borough of Sutton; the Local Agenda 21 Steering
Group; the Advisory Committee on Business and the Environment;
the British Standards Institution; and The Green Alliance.
9. We were grateful for the advice of Mr Derek Osborn,
CB, Chairman of the European Environment Agency.
1 First
Report from the Environmental Audit Committee, The Pre-Budget
Report, HC547, Session 1997-98, published 10 March 1998. Back
2 This volume
contains the Second Report only. The Minutes of Evidence, are
available individually, HC517- i to -ix, and collectively in a
second volume, HC517-II. Back
3 The Green
Minister for the Chancellor's Departments provided memoranda from
the Treasury and HM Customs and Excise but not Inland Revenue. Back
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